Flashathon Questions Answered!

As you can tell from the graphics splashed all over the site, the full flashathon takeover of Writerly Words has begun! The event is this Saturday, October 22nd. The closer and closer it gets the crazier and crazier the idea feels. But it’s an exciting kind of crazy, like sitting at the crest of the first hill of a roller coaster. The fact that roller coasters scare the crap out of me make this potentially a very frightening analogy.

So to answer some Flashathon questions:

Where do I go? Right here to this very blog. I wasn’t sure how big this event would get, and especially with it being twelve hours, I don’t have any plans for an in-person gathering other than hosting a few members of the Cat Vacuuming Society. This year’s event is going to be entirely a virtual write-in here on the internet. If this is big and takes off, I might look into expanding that next year.

How many hours do I have to do? To be considered a participant, just one. To get a blog badge, at least two. This is all about bringing people together and getting them to write during the time they have available, so whenever you can, come!

How much does it take to claim an hour? Very little! Join in with the flash fiction prompt. Write a chapter in a work in progress, or a scene. Finish that half-done short story. Outline a few chapters. Just do anything that’s actually writing. Research doesn’t count, thinking doesn’t count, but anything that involves words being put on paper, into a comment on this blog, or into a Word or Scrivener file absolutely does.

How do I claim an hour? Make a post. If you’re participating in the flash fiction side of things, throw the story up in a comment for that hour’s post. If you’re working on a novel or longer short story, give a word count for that hour, post a favorite sentence that came up, a plot twist you liked, or a milestone you hit.

It’s five minutes past, am I too late to claim the last hour? Absolutely not! I lose track of time while writing, so I’m not planning to close posts right at the hour. New posts will go up automatically every hour, but old ones will still be active for people who didn’t realize what time it was and hadn’t yet checked in.

As I said when setting up the Non-Rule of Flashathon last month, this event is about manic creativity. I’ll provide some structure for people who want structure, cues for people who want cues, but this is about you! You are the writer. You know what you want to write. You know how you write. All I’m hoping is that this Saturday you’ll join us in what will hopefully be an epic online write-in and get some writing done.

Tomorrow I’ll be announcing those people who have agreed to provide guest inspiration for the Flashathon, at least those I can current confirm. These are all going to be thanks to the best con networker I’ve met, Jennifer Brinn, who pulled some serious strings that I can’t thank her enough for.